If approved by City Council, he would come to Houston in the midst of a contentious fire pension negotiation and as firefighters continue to voice concern about aging facilities and call for new equipment.

Houston's fire union stressed those challenges Thursday while urging Peña to stand up to City Hall officials.

"Job one for Chief Peña will be to better balance his obligations at City Hall against those he will have to the 4,000 firefighters who have earned his support," the union said in a statement. We urge Chief Peña to challenge City Hall to commit to the 'shared sacrifice' imposed upon us by sensibly addressing the declining condition of the (Houston Fire Department) fleet and facilities, a too-often adversarial command staff and stalled contract negotiations."

El Paso fire union president Joe Tellez described Peña as a "straight arrow" who moved through the ranks quickly to become a steady leader of the city's roughly 900-person department.

"He's done a good job," Tellez said. "A lot things were set in motion already, and he's kind of ridden herd over what was left from the previous chief."

Those initiatives included completing several new fire stations, doing more paramedic training in-house and assigning various city coverage areas to specific hospitals, rather than transporting all patients to a small group of hospitals, Tellez said.

"The department was really smooth, no hiccups really other than the growth," Tellez said.

Rebecca Elliott covers City Hall for the Houston Chronicle, having previously written about local politics, namely the 2015 Houston mayor’s race. She joined the Chronicle in 2014 as a crime and general assignment reporter in Fort Bend County. A New York City native, she also has reported on politics for Reuters, POLITICO and BuzzFeed.